Brought to you by The Media Center, a think tank examining the intersection of media, technology and society, this public webcast focuses on the impact of new technologies and participatory media on the Nov. 2 U.S. election.

Join bloggers, cable news, and print journalists to discuss the transformation in information flow and the rise in grassroots activism demonstrated during this election.

Add to my vocal take and Cecil’s sepulchral midi piano take (the “15-foot Christian” one) this reasonably crisp run-through of the melody on ukulele, processed to sound like electric guitar.
Note the hymn originally had a right-boring Anglican melody called St. Peter and this version is set to an African-American spiritual, hence its lovely pentatonic goodness.
Now I should compare the chords Cecil derived from my vocals to the chords of some sheet music I found online recently, which I’m trying to transcribe for my tenor uke.

It seems in many ways as if our entire media culture is devoted to broadcasting ephemera. Blogs, like reality TV, record the minutiae of our everyday lives, offering lessons in everything from cooking and manners to patent law and sex. Blogs also record our everyday lives even when we intend them to reflect only information of the moment.

Political punditry is harder than it looks. That’s what a lot of Democratic voters must be thinking right about now. Last winter Democratic-voters played political consultant. They tried to step inside the minds of swing voters and figure out which Democratic presidential candidate could beat George W. Bush. With an eye cast coldly on November, they rejected the man who had first won their hearts, Howard Dean, and flocked to the more “electable” choice, John Kerry. Among New Hampshire voters who said beating Bush was their biggest concern, Kerry beat Dean by a whopping 52 points.

Democratic voters should stick to their day jobs. With just five weeks until Election Day, there’s reason to believe they guessed wrong – that Dean would be doing better against Bush than Kerry is.

…

In last week’s TIME poll, Kerry’s biggest deficit versus Bush was in “sticking to his positions.” Only 37% of registered voters in the survey said Kerry does that, compared with 84% for Bush.

Dean wouldn’t have that problem. Polls in Iowa showed him doing best among voters who value a candidate who “takes strong stands.”

Gradually, b and I are entering the 21st century. We just got a DVD player (but not a TiVo or other PVR yet, and we still don’t have cable or satellite – how to choose by the way?). So of course I just signed us up for a free NetFlix trial. Our queue should now show up as one of my offsite feeds somewhere in the sidebar here.

“At its core, a Wiki is an empty room, devoid of furniture and decoration, said Sunir Shah, founder of an online community called Meatball. Visitors bring the personality and mission, turning the Wiki into a library, a party or a conference room.

Wikis are also described as online whiteboards, shared notebooks or group memory. They are forums for sharing knowledge and control — and fostering trust in the process.”